It was interesting to begin thinking of digital citizenship as separate in many ways from digital literacy. As mentioned in our class, the two topics are often referred to together as the same thing and at some points overlap, but someone can be digitally literate and have poor digital citizenship.

The Importance of Digital Citizenship in My Context

With adult EAL learners, I generally focus on identifying their level of digital literacy and try to work with each of them from where they are. I haven’t given as much thought to the digital citizenship side of the coin, but when I reflect on it, a few things come to mind.

Legal and Ethical Aspects – We have a check in question of the day on our Team where students need to answer a simple question such as: what modes of transportation are common in your country? Or: add a picture of a favorite food from your country. I assumed in the beginning that they would write what they knew and add their own pictures, but I soon saw many students copying and pasting from the internet both text and pictures. I realize now that this is a great chance to have them attribute the answers and pictures that they find. So, this is one thing I can digcitcommit to – having my students attribute their answers.

Internet Safety & Privacy and Security – One unit I do each year that I think is very useful for my students is The Little Black Book of Scams, or sometimes I use Scams to Avoid. Over the years it has been updated to include many online topics such as Internet scams, dating and romance scams, and money transfer requests. I find that students know about most of these scams but are surprised by some. Some of the scams are similar or worse in their original countries. They are usually most interested in the sections on how to protect yourself and how to report a scam. So, another digcitcommit I can make is to continue to keep updated on this as part of my yearly curriculum.

Digital Footprint and Reputation & Self-Image and Identity – You would think that adults are more aware of the digital footprint and reputation that they put out online then their children, but over the years I have seen some pictures or images used that made me wonder if they just didn’t realize who would see them, or if they just didn’t realize that they were inappropriate. On the other hand, I have also had students who were paranoid to put anything online. So, I think one more digcitcommit could be to spend more time educating about the self-image and identity that they will inevitably create. This one can be tricky because different cultures can have different views. But in the end, making sure that students know what they put out about themselves, like a tattoo, isn’t easy to take away and that they can work hard at a positive self-image and identity that will benefit them in the future, is an important step.